Wholesale Consumer Electronics

It has been noticed that consumer electronics are sold on a wholesale basis to the end-users' market primarily under three circumstances:

- When they are introduced to the market.

- When supply becomes higher than the demand.

- When the manufacturer proposes a planned/built-in obsolescence.

Consumer Electronics: An Explanation


Any electronic equipment intended for everyday usage is termed consumer electronics. This may range from simple digital wrist/pen watches to high fidelity home-theater systems and covers all the electronic equipments used in entertainment, communications and office productivity.

The Shift


Formerly, consumer electronics used to be the monopoly of corporate giants. But the scene changed as the vacuum-filled tubes gave way to transistors (semi-conductor based devices acting as signal amplifiers); cheap, reliable and easy to handle, they also brought down the prodigious manufacturing prices, giving rise to small-time manufacturers. However, the newbies followed a different principle altogether; their products were built for speed and not to last. Examples of such products are the unbranded desktop telephones, audio & video equipments w/o recording facilities, portable televisions, calculators, digital clocks etc. The term use and throw was derived from this.

The Strategy


Since it was not possible for the small-time manufacturers to offer the quality at-par with the corporate giants, they focused on providing different get-ups for the same range of products. The third-world economy providing the necessary boost, people opted out to settle for less.

Bigger brands play a different ball game altogether when it comes to selling their products on a wholesale basis. The wholesale rate is only applicable for the traders, who, in turn, provide discounts to end-users on unit sales. It is done primarily for populariing the product, to clear the excess stock and before the manufacturer decides to stop or intentionally stops the production of the item (planned/built-in obsolescence).

The Psychology behind buying wholesale consumer electronics


Since quality is a priority to bigger brands, therefore, their products also come expensive; this makes shunning away the purchased item all the more difficult even after newer models show up. The Human bent-of-mind always look forward to changes and the newly emerged second-grade electronics market provided them the scope. This time, they paid the same price for more than one item and got the varied designs free with the purchase. The trend still continues.

The reliability factor


With the advent of computing and Internet technology, wholesale markets are not any more confined within the walk-in territory; the online stores nowadays offer the wholesale prices as well. According to a survey by Consumer Reports (a consumer-advocacy publication), it's not the big departmental chain stores that rate high in terms of price, selection and service, but its the online stores that excel. However, its always better to judge before buying; once the credibility report comes clear, a comparative study must be done on the lowest prices, return policies, wide selection, service, delivery and installation procedures. The rest is, as they say it - "Bingo!"